Sacre Bleu is “part mystery, part history (sort of), part love story, and wholly hilarious as it follows a young baker-painter as he joins the dapper Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the supposed “suicide” of Vincent van Gogh.” Of course, what really matters is that Sacre Bleu is 100% Christopher Moore! (And the title rolls off the tongue like a perfect (non)swear word. Something I can safely say around my children, or rather, around other people’s children since mine long ago gained immunity to curse words.)

So, I’ve got author guy Christopher Moore here, now, talking to me.

Well, okay – we sent a couple emails back and forth last month and I’m publishing them now to pimp him, his book, and his continental tour, but it’s kinda the same thing and makes me want to scream “Holy Fucksox!” from the rooftops. Because if there is any one thing all of my loyal fans should know about me, it’s that if I had to be trapped on an island with just one book, the book would be Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.

My precious...

I love that book so much that I own three copies. Two of which are in constant circulation bringing hoards of new fans into the hilariously twisted world of Christopher Moore and one, leather-bound, gold embossed, biblical edition which does not leave my house.

But Christopher Moore isn’t here to talk about my rabid fandom, no, Christopher Moore is here to talk about Fucktards, Fucksox, Fuck-bubbles and of course, his new book – Sacre Bleu – which officially arrives in stores April 3rd – launching a continental book tour with a stop (wait for it, wait for it…) right here in Denver at our very own Tattered Cover LoDo on April 7th at 7pm!

One more refrain please – Holy Fucksox!

And now, on with the interview!

TBT: I’m a longtime fan and will forever be in your debt for your invention of my favorite word ever – Fucktard – I use it daily. How did you come up with that?
CM: Actually I didn’t invent the word, I just sort of promoted it. When I was researching how Goth kids speak for my book You Suck, I was reading a lot of blogs by Goth teens and that’s where I ran across it.

TBT: Tell me about your affinity for the word fuck. When did it start? What’s your favorite derivative? Has your editor ever come back to you and said you need to take a few out, or do they know better?
CM: My latest favorite is Fuck-bubble, which my Medieval Fool character uses to refer to a particularly attractive young woman “Aye, she’s a delicious little fuck-bubble to be sure, but that said…” The only time I’ve really backed off the use of the word was in Lamb, because everyone who read the manuscript said that they had a problem getting over Jesus saying it, so to keep the reader’s head in the story, I gentled up that character’s dialogue a little.

TBT: What was your inspiration for Sacre Bleu? Aside from some good belly laughs, what can your readers expect from it?
CM: I really like looking at art. I’ve been fortunate enough to tour nationally for about fifteen years, and in my two hours or so off in each city, I like to go to museums and look at art. I find it’s a terrific break and is completely not about me or the book I’m promoting. After many years of doing that, and after visiting Paris for the first time when I was researching Fool, I decided to write about French artists. I also wanted to see if I could write a book about the color blue. It seemed challenging.

TBT: For the writers – What’s your writing space look like? Cluttered/clean, do you listen to music (what kind), are you a write on a schedule kind of guy, or a write when you can?

Not Christopher Moore's Actual Office.

CM: It looks like someone stood in the doorway with a cannon loaded with office supplies and fired it into the room. There isn’t three square inches of space on either of my two desks or any of the bookshelves surrounding me. I sort of sit in the middle of a giant nest of clutter when I work. Even if I clean it down to the surfaces, in a week it’s back to looking like this. I do like to listen to music when I work, but only instrumental stuff. Lyrics distract me when I’m looking for words. I try to write on a schedule, but it turns out that the schedule has to be flexible because I have a lot of demands on my time that I didn’t have on my first few books, like interviews, for instance.
(TBT Here – I think he just blamed me for missing his next deadline. Sorry guys. My bad.)

TBT: Multiple projects at a time, or one track story-teller?
CM: I usually start the research for a new book when I’m finishing up the last, but I really don’t do well with writing more than one story at a time, even if they are different forms, like say a screenplay and a novel, or a graphic novel and a novel. One at a time in that regard. I did start painting when I was researching Sacré Bleu, and I can work on a visual piece and a writing project with no problem. I think they come from different parts of the brain, to be honest.

TBT: You sell fucksox to raise money for MS research – why MS, what’s the connection?
CM: Profits from all the merchandise, as well as the socks, go to MS research. I never really wanted to be in the merchandise business, but my readers kept clamoring for stuff, so I agreed at first to do a Cafe Press store, if someone else would manage it, and all the profits would go to charity. That way I’d be alleviated from feeling like a huge merch whore. About the time the store was starting up, a young friend of ours was diagnosed with MS, and I’d worked with people in the past who had been stricken with the disease, watched the struggle they had trying to maintain a normal life, and so MS research became the cause.

TBT: Can you tell us what we can expect to see from you next?
CM: I’m writing another book starring my fool, Pocket, based on more Shakespeare. This one’s set in Venice. Should be full of heinous fuckery most foul.

Last – can you provide a favorite/choice snippet from Sacre Bleu to whet my reader’s appetites?